The Iglesia de El Salvador is a church in

Toledo, Spain Toledo ( , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, capital of the province of Toledo and the ''de jure'' seat of the government and parliament of the autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha. Toledo was declared a World Heritage Site by UN ...

completed in 1159. Although the church is small, it is an exceptional building, because it was the site of 4 successive constructions, one on other and so on. It's a 12th-century church built on an 11th-century

Taifa The ''taifas'' (singular ''taifa'', from ar, طائفة ''ṭā'ifa'', plural طوائف ''ṭawā'if'', a party, band or faction) were the independent Muslim principalities and kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain), re ...

mosque, which was an expansion of a 9th-century

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

mosque and in turn on a

Visigothic The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is ...

religious building. The current church is still oriented south-east, in the direction of

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow v ...

. It survived the conquest of Toledo by the Christian armies in 1085, to be turned into a church in 1159. One of the most characteristic elements of the church is a

pilaster, with intricate relief carvings.Roger Collins, ''Spain, An Oxford Archaeological Guide'', ed. Oxford University Press, 1998 , p. 277

History

The Iglesia de El Salvador is located in the city of Toledo, near the Churches of Santo Tomé and Convento de Santa Úrsula. It is one of the churches mentioned in the '' Lazarillo de Tormes'', and here

Joanna of Castile Joanna (6 November 1479 – 12 April 1555), historically known as Joanna the Mad ( es, link=no, Juana la Loca), was the nominal Queen of Castile from 1504 and Queen of Aragon from 1516 to her death in 1555. She was married by arrangement to P ...

("the Mad") and the dramatist Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla were baptized. The current church is built on the mosque, so it is oriented southeast in direction toward

. For which construction, different elements of the previous Visigothic building were reused, because of that a horseshoe arcade supported on Visigothic

pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

s has been preserved with sculpted decoration of figurative themes, unusual in this type of remains. The Pilaster of El Salvador, shows in one of its faces various Visigothic miraculous scenes from the life of Jesus: the Cure of the Blind, the Resurrection of Lazarus, the Samaritan and the Hemorroísa, as well as other themes of eucharistic hue that alluding to Christ as the salvation. Its crude treatment shows the abandonment in which the work had fallen on the stone. Although it conserves the shape of the

minaret A minaret (; ar, منارة, translit=manāra, or ar, مِئْذَنة, translit=miʾḏana, links=no; tr, minare; fa, گل‌دسته, translit=goldaste) is a type of tower typically built into or adjacent to mosques. Minarets are generall ...

, that carries incrustations of borders, in 1159 it made several Christian modifications, and the construction in the end-15th century of the Gothic chapel of Santa Catalina. The tower corresponds to the minaret of the mosque, with a Baroque brick addition at the body of the bells. It is dedicated to St. Savior. The church suffered a fire in the 15th century, which forced an important restoration. Álvarez de Toledo was commissioned to the restoration and he added new chapels highlighting the chapel of Santa Catalina.

References

*Matilde Revuelta Tubino, ''Inventario Artistico de Toledo ''(Madrid, 1983–89) p. 307

Bibliography

External links

Description of the Iglesia de El Salvador in toledomonumental.com

*''Consorcio Toledo: La Mezquita de el Salvador'

(retrieved December 13, 2008) *''ArteHistori

{{Coord, 39.8566, -4.0267, type:landmark_region:ES, display=title Former mosques in Spain Conversion of non-Christian religious buildings and structures into churches 9th-century mosques 12th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Spain

Salvador Salvador, meaning " salvation" (or "saviour") in Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese may refer to: * Salvador (name) Arts, entertainment, and media Music *Salvador (band), a Christian band that plays both English and Spanish music ** ''Salvador'' ( ...

Visigothic architecture Moorish architecture in Spain